8 . Puzzle

Before she could process what she'd discovered , she felt as if something was pulling her downwards. When she looked down to see what was wrong she found herself stuck in a quicksand and was sinking deeper into it with each passing second. How did she get caught into quicksand when she was standing in her grandpa's study ? she thought as she took a view around her , the walls of the room were melting into sand revealing the darkness behind them. The sand was increasing and she was sinking deeper into it. Panicked, she began struggling to get out of there , she looked around her to find something to hold onto , something that could pull her out of the sand but where ever she turned for help she was faced by darkness and nothing else. She felt as if she was caged inside a sand hourglass ............ Soon she was covered by sand and she felt the air escaping her lungs.
With the last breath inside her she mouthed the words " J..a..m..e..s.."
                        

Sue fell on the floor with a huge thud as she gasped for air. Her vision was blurry and her head felt dizzy. She reached for the water bottle kept near the night lamp and emptied it down in one go. She lay on the floor staring at the ceiling processing all that she saw . She was back in her bedroom which meant that the entire scenario was nothing but a stupid dream. But it was too realistic to be a dream. She could still feel her chest ache from lack of air. But why all of a sudden ? She had never got any dreams about her past ....Was it some sort of signal ? A sign that could help her ?

     
It was already 4 PM and she was quite hungry . She had to eat something or else she could no longer be able to cope up with all these strange turn of events. As she was getting up she noticed something from the corner of her eye. There was something under the bed. It looked like some box.. She dragged it out and blew off the dust from it. The tape was intact which meant that it was never opened before. The yellow paper on it had her address and the delivery date . The box was 3 years old and was still unopened , but considering other strange events this was not even the slightest of her problem. Initially she thought that it belonged to James but the yellow paper clearly stated that it belonged to her. Maybe James had received it when she was out and then forgot to inform her about it. Sue grabbed a box cutter from the cupboard and opened the box. And to her surprise the box had her grandpa's wooden chest. Sue felt her world turn upside down as she stared at the wooden chest with horror . Trembling , she picked up the chest and inspected it. There was no mistake it was the same wooden chest from her dream.

Sue opened the chest hoping to find it empty like she did in her dream but there was something in the box.... There was a tiny vial of liquid in it. She picked up the vial trying to figure out what it was supposed to be when it struck her. It was the same vial of holy water that the church priest had handed her grandpa when she had spotted a serpent mark. In the beginning  when all things started messing up, it was a compete puzzle for Sue but now she felt that everything was falling into its place piece by piece bringing the big picture into spotlight. Now , she just had to figure out how to use these pieces to complete the picture and come out of it alive.